Survivors face long wait for aid

A Pakistani
earthquake survivor holds her child in front of collapsed mud houses at Labach area, in the earthquake-devastated district
of Awaran yesterday. Photo: AFP

Tens of thousands of survivors of Pakistan's earthquake waited for help in soaring temperatures yesterday, as the death toll rose to nearly 350 and anger grew at the slow pace of government aid.
More than 100,000 people made homeless by Tuesday's 7.7-magnitude quake spent a second night in the open or under makeshift shelters as response teams struggled to reach the remote region in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.
Abdul Latif Kakar, the head of Baluchistan's Provincial Disaster Management Authority, told AFP the death toll stood at 348, more than 300 of them in Arawan district, with more than 500 injured.
The sheer scale of the territory involved is daunting -- the population of Awaran is scattered over more than 21,000 square kilometres -- and infrastructure is extremely limited, with few medical facilities or even roads.
On top of the remote, rugged terrain, the area is also home to Baluch separatist rebels waging a decade-long insurgency.
Highlighting the danger from militants, a helicopter carrying the head of the National Disaster Management Authority came under rocket fire in Awaran, though no damage was done and no one was hurt.
The quake is already Pakistan's deadliest since the devastating Kashmir tremor of 2005 which killed 73,000. The toll is expected to rise further as rescue teams dig through the rubble of countless flattened mud-brick homes.